Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said that there is no place in Maharashtra for people who create communal conflicts to garner votes. He also said that the misuse of cyber space and cellphone technology needed to be addressed carefully.
Referring to the communal riots that took place in Muzaffarnagar of Uttar Pradesh, while addressing the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting of all the chief ministers at New Delhi, Mr Chavan blamed rabid elements in the society for frequent communal conflicts.
“Maharashtra will not allow communal clashes for vote bank politics. We have no place for those who want to acquire votes by creating communal conflicts,” Mr Chavan said. He also warned that the communal situation in the country remains volatile as people live under constant apprehension of minor incidents taking an ugly turn.
“Most of such tensions are deliberately provoked by some rabid elements that have their own personal and political agenda. It is, therefore, essential that all such situations that have the slightest of potential of turning themselves into a communal riot should be dealt with proactively,” Mr Chavan said.
Informing about the action taken to prevent the misuse of social media, the chief minister announced that the state would soon start a social media laboratory to be monitored by State Intelligence Department (SID).
“To provide justice as soon as possible in the cases of crime against women, the state has also formed 25 new fast track courts. Along with this, to provide help to the victims of rape and acid attack, the state is coming up with a new scheme called ‘Manodhairya Yojana’. The scheme that is going to commence from October 2 will provide financial assistance to such victims,” Mr Chavan said.
The chief minister also pitched for making necessary changes in the Juvenile Justice Act in view of the Delhi gangrape case, in which a convicted juvenile is slated to get maximum
punishment of three years.